The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

... or one today plus 101-120 as promised?

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

The just missed list comes just before the Top Ten, not the Top Twelve. The Top Ten is when it goes to one reveal a day. Except for #13, apparently.

Ah, just reveal the rest of the list right here, right now, and break all the norms.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Well, I hardly need to say anything about This is Spinal Tap do I? It was my #2, and is remembered as being the most hilarious mockumentary (I think it helped define the genre) ever made and also one of the funniest movies of all time. Much of it has entered public discourse, such as turning something up to "11", and there is much that is quotable within. Just the names of some of the songs they sing is enough to get me going. "Lick My Love Pump"? A lot of the humour comes from the drop dead dumb way a lot of the band members talk, and the songs they sing. Every time I watch a rock documentary, it takes me back to Spinal Tap and makes me want to watch this film. People seem to bring it up all the time in relation to what comedy they like, and it just remains in all of our consciousness that way.

Just the one today? This countdown is always about to surprise me!

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Films I've seen : 70˝
Films that have been on my radar : 16˝
Films I've never even heard of : 2

Films from my list : 12

#13 - My #2 - This is Spinal Tap - (1984)
#14 - My #5 - Galaxy Quest - (1999)
#15 - My #6 - Shaun of the Dead - (2004)
#17 - My #24 - The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! - (1988)
#20 - My #12 - Life of Brian - (1979)
#24 - My #18 - The Jerk - (1979)
#30 - My #10 - What We Do in the Shadows - (2014)
#34 - My #9 - Back to the Future - (1985)
#62 - My #13 - The In-Laws - (1979)
#65 - My #21 - Black Dynamite - (2009)
#82 - My #8 - The Producers - (1967)
One pointer - Brewster McCloud (1970)

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I remember enjoying This Is Spinal Tap back in the day but it's been many, many years since I've seen it meaning I remember little by way of detail and as such won't count it in the stats. No idea whether or not it would have made my ballot, would've needed to rewatch it.

Seen: 44/88 (I think that's right)

Tomorrow's:
Entre tinieblas [Dark Habits]

and

Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime)

This is Spın̈al Tap was #33 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1980s.

I haven't seen Spinal Tap in ages, and I didn't vote for it, but no surprise to see it here. Classic mockumentary, plus there was a pretty great Spinal Tap bit on The Simpsons.

I watched This Is Spinal Tap for the list and enjoyed it quite a bit. I have no doubt if I had watched 30 yeses ago, as I should have, that it would have resonated with me more and felt unique. Didn’t make my list but I certainly expected it and think it deserves to be this high.

Holden has too much decorum to start a chant, so I will do it:

Two more! Two more! Two more!

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Letterboxd

Coulda done either. Seems fair, since we got an extra one early on.

Perhaps, in honour of Spinal Tap, there ought to be eleven entries released today? Would still leave the final two for tomorrow

I've never quite understood the love for This is Spinal Tap. I don't dislike it, I even got a mild chuckle or two from it, but I didn't even come close to loving it. I do love and voted for a different mockumentary, in which the same actors from Spinal Tap form a very different band. That one never had a chance though.

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Yoda and Chyp have decorum too. Whatever happened to good old mob mentality. Gen Z is ruining everything

"Fu*k the napkin!" I had This is Spın̈al Tap on my ballot at number twenty-two, good for just four of its 233 points. I had to make room, I couldn't leave it off. Its deadpan, fly-on-the-wall, comedy vérité is obviously incredibly influential, ultimately birthing an eventual avalanche of mockumentary formatted comedy from "The Office", "Reno 9-1-1", and "Parks & Recreation" to "Modern Family", Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (#42) and What We Do in the Shadows (#31) and of course Christopher Guest's own films including Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, and Best in Show (#75). It still makes me laugh every time I watch it. Again, this was long before I was in bands myself, but now that I am the antics and arguing of Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls, and their combustible series of drummers resonates even more than it did as a comedy nerd teenager obsessively rewatching the VHS and later Criterion Collection Laser Disc over and over and over.

Spın̈al Tap might not have had the cosmic sense to be number eleven on the collective list, but it is my eleventh choice to be revealed. I still expect five more in the Top Twelve leaving nine of my choices in the dark.

Holden’s Ballot
3. After Hours (#29)
4. His Girl Friday (#26)
5. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (#20)
6. Singin’ in the Rain (#50)
7. Rushmore (#54)
9. Bringing Up Baby (#22)
10. The Graduate (#27)
12. Raising Arizona (#23)
15. One Two Three (#86)
16. The Blues Brothers (#21)
22. This is Spın̈al Tap (#13)

I had This Is Spinal Tap at #2. Love it. One of my favourite movies. The og mockumentary never to be topped. The songs, the band, the shows, the drama, the drummers...and boy does it make me laugh. These guys are excellent in this. I feel like watching it right now.

2. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
4. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
5. Being John Malkovich (1999)
7. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
8. Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
9. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
10. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
11. Superbad (2007)
12. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
13. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
14. Playtime (1967)
15. Dazed and Confused (1993)
17. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
18. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
19. Trading Places (1983)
23. Animal House (1978)
24. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

One vote (obviously). I had This Is Spinal Tap at #13 as well (there is one other possible instance where a film on my list could line up with the main list, but we'll just have to wait and see). A major favourite that I've watched a couple of dozen times, it's easy to throw on and get lost in a pitch-perfect parody of the rock star lifestyle that's helped by having some genuinely great music, excellent performances from main players and one-off cameos alike (Paul Shaffer going "kick my ass", Fred Willard as the Air Force commander, etc.), and all sorts of inspired gags on and off the stage (I definitely referenced "Hello, Cleveland!" at some point in the past week or so).

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Just wasn't any room to squeeze in "This is Spinal Tap".

Side notes: Really thought my #1 would show up, no hope now. Now if my #3 doesn't show, my faith in "Mofos know comedy" takes a hit.




My ballot: *6/87 (1-ptr hit)
My 2nd ballot: 6/87
Seen: 75/87
1-ptrs seen: 16
Put on watch list: 5
Meh, Huh, WTF: 7

Two spots off from what would have been a great spot for it on the list.


I said this back when Best in Show was revealed, I considered this and Best in Show for my list. Hadn't seen either in a long time (but for some reason, probably being slightly younger, I came across Best in Show first). Decided I should rewatch them for the countdown. Rewatched Spinal Tap, didn't laugh. I still don't know if it just happened to be the mood* or if it's one of the other many reasons why you find yourself no longer laughing at a familiar/semi-familiar comedy from your teen years. So I decided to cut Spinal Tap, didn't rewatch Best in Show because "I didn't want to risk it,"** and just put Best in Show low on my ballot.


*: I also didn't laugh at my rewatch of Dogtooth, but I had laughed my butt off the previous night rewatching another movie that did make my ballot, but seems impossible to make the countdown this late, but was also a very different type of humor.


**: I didn't want to eliminate Christopher Guest completely just because I wasn't in the right mood and it's really painful watching straight comedies and not laughing at the jokes.

Maybe it's not the near misses I'll be the most curious about, but rather the top 5's of people's ballots, when the reveals happen, that missed (which points-wise seem like they should be near misses... but if there's a lot in that category).

Finally some more British films and some more from my list

Monty Python's Life of Brian was my #7. Very silly, very funny with some smart points to make, many of which are still sharply relevant: "Yes, we are all individuals".

I'd never thought that Holy Grail was substantially better known, I'd always thought they were equally well known... 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', "blessed are the cheesemakers", People's Front of Judea...

I may revise this opinion if I were to rewatch them, but I always felt that while Holy Grail was funnier, Life of Brian was the more coherent and probably better movie overall. I had them very close together on my ballot, with Brian just slightly higher.


I'm not surprised by Galaxy Quest appearing on this countdown, I know it is well loved here and has appeared on previous lists. I think it's a smart, affectionate send-up of Star Trek and the whole idea of long finished shows being sustained by fandom and conventions that proves, as other people have said, that the best parodies are those that love the thing they are parodying. (See also Shaun of the Dead.) Galaxy Quest was my #16


Shaun of the Dead was #2 on my list. It's one of those movies that is more rewarding on subsequent viewings as there are lots of smart little visual gags or references that you might have missed the first time. Spaced would easily make a top 25 comedy TV show list for me (which is something we should also do as a kind of companion to this countdown...) and this taps into the same kind of humour. It was not the only zombie comedy on my list either, although at this point the only one which will make the countdown. Probably.

Every time I put on Spinal Tap (and this has been a frequent to semi-frequent thing ever since I was about 14) I think "This is the time it stops being funny".



Never happens.


While when it comes to interactions with friends I'm what one might call an 'easy laugh', I'm notorious when it comes to films at finding anything that actually catches me off guard and gets me howling. It's even more rare for something to do it repeatedly, over and over and over again, and even when I know every line of dialogue, it still somehow tricks me into showing some form of enjoyment. Causes me to break character and show not everything is fire and brimstone and freezer burnt ice cream (that I just spent ten dollars on)



Usually, my love for a comedy will settle more into 'appreciation'. I'll nod to myself in recognition that, yes, that was a good one. But if it gets so much as a smile out of me (or even half of one) it's a near miracle. I blame my stone-faceism on Jerry Lewis. I begged to see Hardly Working as a child, and when my mother and her creepy boyfriend brought me to it, I remember with horror that what I was doing through the entirity of the movie was 'fake laughing'. There was no joy in me, but I was simply laughing as a recognition that I understood that a joke had just happened. I felt like a phony. And in my indignant four year old ways, I refused to ever do it again. Thanks, Jerry Lewis, for making me a miserable ****.


So I'm a tough audience. But Spinal Tap (and a very small handful of other films) make me look like just as easy a laugh as I am in the real world, shooting the shit with the handful of people I can bear to be around for more than five minutes. But unlike those friends, who I might threaten with violence if they dared to try and tell me the same joke twice, I will return to this movie over and over again, to hear the same old shit, told the same exact way, and it's always always always funny. To this day, I have never been able to watch that tiny Stonehenge slowly descending over Harry Shearer's shoulder, without tears running down my face. And then dwarves. And they just keep playing through the embarassment. Possibly the most glorious moment in all of comedy, next to Biggus Dickus (which we've already decided is not a top 5 comedy, as there is clearly no God)


I don't know where I ranked this, but it had to be top three or four. And it easily could have been number 1, depending on the day I submitted the list.

This is Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap members Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) reminisce about their various unlucky drummers – one died from a bizarre gardening accident, one spontaneously combusted and one choked on vomit, although it wasn’t his. The authorities could never tell whose it was though because…

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